Inking device for aniline color printing



April 17, 1945. v HEYWQQD ETAL 2,374,095

INKING DEVICE ANILINE COLOR PRINTING Filed- Nov. 23, 1941 I'NyE/v Toms W/vcE/v r E Hrrwoaa DUDLEY A.- M RAE ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 17, 1945 UNITED STATES PATIENT OFFICE mama DEVICE roa ANILINE coma ram'rmo Vincent. E. Heywood and Dudley A. McRae, Worcester, Mass., assignors to United States Envelope Company, Springfield, Mass., a corporation of Maine Application November 28, 1941, Serial No. 420,764 I 2 Claims.

the delivery of excess ink to the'printing member on high speed machines, various expedients have been employed to restrict the amount of, ink transferred, as by the use of wipers or doctors bearing on the surface of one of the ink carrying elements. Furthermore, it has been proposed to employ a dipping roll having an intaglio screen etched into its surface, so that ink is retained in the depressions, even after operation of the doctor, as disclosed for example in Dietrich Patent No. 2,240,762, dated May 6, 1941. We have discovered, however, that the utilization of a scraping doctor cooperating with either a smooth cylinder or'intaglio screen surface, presents certain difficulties, due to the fact that any particle of foreign matter caught in the edge of the doctor, inevitably results in a streaky, inked surface.

According to the.present invention, we'overcome the basic difficulties heretofore encountered in applying aniline printing ink, by utilizing a differential relation between the surface speeds of dash pitch circles in Fig. l, and the ratio of this gearing is such that the surface speed of the intaglio screen roll 3 is considerably greater than the surface speed of the cylindrical dipping roll 2. 4

Therefore, the intaglio screen surface of the roll 3 operates in slipping, rolling contactwith the dipping roll 2, without any appreciable scraping or dragging action, such as is present with a doctor. The net result of such contact'is the removal of substantially all of the surface ink from the roll 3 and uniformv distribution of the ink ,within the roll depressions. As the roll 3 engages the surface of the printing cylinder 4, the ink in' the depressions is transferred to the cylinder 4 as 5 a thin and extremely even film, entirely free from streakiness.

The intaglio roll 3 is driven from the printing cylinder 4 by gearing 8, as shown in Fig. 2, with the pitch circles of these gears coinciding with the outside diameters of the roll 3 and cylinder 4, see Fig. 1. The cylindrical surface of roll 2 is preferably covered with a resilient material,.such as rubber, or other composition of a'm'eldable nature.

We claim:

1. Inking apparatus for aniline color printin comprising in combination an ink fountain, a

fountain roll having a smooth cylindrical surface and mounted to dip in ink placed in said founa cylindrical dipping roll and of a transfer roll 9 tain, a transfer roll having a cylindrical intaglio ,having an intaglio s'creensurface. By causing the intaglio screen surface to travel at a higher speed than the cylindrical surface of the dippin roll, the resulting slipping and rolling contact between the surfaces insures an extremely uniform distribution of ink around the screen surface for transfer to the printing member in a thin, even film.

The above and other advantageous features of the invention will hereinafter appear from the 9 following description, considered in connection with the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 is a view in end elevation of an inking device embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view along the line 2-4 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows. K

Referring to the drawing, a container I for aniline printing ink has a cylindrical roll 2 dipping therein. A second roll 3 provides an intaglio screen surface, as indicated, which intaglio sur-' face is in engagement with the cylindrical surface of roll 2, and with the surface of a printin member represented by a plate cylinder l.'

The rolls 2 and 3 are connected by gearing I. shown in Fig. 3, and indicated by the dot and gg driving means for rotating said transfer roll at a speed considerablygreater than said fountain roll to provide slipping rolling between the intaglio surface of said transfer roll and the smooth surface of said fountain roll.

2. Inking apparatus for aniline color printins, comprising in combination an ink fountain, a fountain roll having a smooth. cylindrical surface and mounted to dip in ink placed in said fountain, a transfer roll having a cylindrical intaglio surto face in continuous engagement with said fountain roll, a printing plate cylinder having its surface in engagement with said transfer roll,

gearing connecting said plate cylinder and trans-s fer roll for driving their engaged surfaces at substantially the same speed and other gearing connecting said transfer roll and fountain roll for driving the intaglio surface of said transfer roll at a speed at least twice that of the cylindrlcal surface of said fountain roll.

\ VINCENT E. HEYWOOD.

DUDLEY A. mass. 

